Russian military start getting grip on border with Georgia to prevent conscripts’ exodus

On the border with Georgia, which has becomes a point of exodus for those Russian men who want to avoid conscription, Russia opens a military commissariat presence.

According to the eyewitnesses from the place, at this stage the conscripts are not detained, nor are they prevented from crossing border. The officers hand over them so called Povestkas, special documents containing personal information of an individual and confirming that he is mobilized for military service.

At first, the Telegram channel SHOT wrote about it Monday and published a photo of the minivan with the inscription Military Commissariat, a special body at Russia’s Ministry of Defense responsible for conscription, and later it was confirmed by the Russian state media.

Earlier, there were reports that near Zemo Larsi, which is the only place where one can legally cross the Russian-Georgian border, Russia’s military deployed “operational groups” to prevent the movement of men subject to conscription across the border.

This is somewhat unprecedented, as border control is constitutionally the competence of Russia’s omnipotent Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet KGB, which has historically been categorically opposed to the interference of other agencies in its domain.